WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence agencies conclude in a draft report that Afghanistan is in a downward spiral and they doubt whether the Kabul government can stem the Taliban’s rise, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – The United States called on NATO allies on Thursday to allow the alliance to attack the Afghan opium trade, which it said was bringing the Taliban up to $80 million a year.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber attacked police headquarters in Islamabad, warplanes killed 20 Islamist fighters in the northwest, and children died in a roadside blast on Thursday as Pakistan’s war with militants intensified.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hundreds of houses in ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia were torched in August, after Russian troops took control of the area, according to an analysis of satellite images released on Thursday.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian Islamists in Gaza are stalling on an Egyptian plan to reconcile them with the secular PLO leadership in the West Bank, a senior official of the rival Fatah faction said on Thursday.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Two of Serbia’s closest neighbors are expected to move toward recognizing Kosovo on Thursday, a blow to Belgrade’s efforts to counter the secession of its former province.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin brushed aside a demand by the Communist Party to sack Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Thursday, saying now was not the time to discuss mistakes made by economic authorities.

An Iraqi MP from the bloc of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has died in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.

At least three police officers and a civilian have been killed in an attack in Diyarbakir in south-eastern Turkey. Unidentified assailants reportedly opened fire on a police bus on the ouskirts of the mainly Kurdish city. 22 other people, mainly trainee officers, have been injured.

The UN’s decision to refer the issue of Kosovo’s status to the International Court of Justice has met with dismay in Pristina, which declared independence earlier this year.